July 23, 2008
Baseball's all star game is something special in sports
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
As all star games go, there is nothing in professional sports to compare with baseball's mid-season event.
The NFL Pro Bowl, coming right after the Super Bowl, does not attract the same interest among exhausted football fans
and many of the players from the Super Bowl teams pass it up. The NHL and NBA all star games can be exciting but they
don't reach the level of major league baseball.
Through the years, it has been my good fortune to be part of the media horde covering five all star games.
It was exciting to be at Veteran's Stadium in 1976 when Mark Fidrych, who had a brief but exhilarating career with the
Detroit Tigers, got the start for the American League. The National League won, 7-1, and the Reds' George Foster was the
most valuable player.
Two future South Jersey coaches played in the game. Greg Luzinski, who later coached baseball and football at Holy Cross
High School, started for the National League. He is now the guru of barbeque at Citizen's Bank Park. And Don Money, a
former Phillie then playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, saw action for the American League. Money would become head
baseball coach at Sacred Heart.
The following year we followed the all star game to Yankee Stadium. Joe Morgan led off the game with a home run as the
National League scored four in the first inning off Jim Palmer. Luzinski hit a two-run homer in that first inning. The
National League won it, 7-5, and the Dodgers' Don Sutton was the winning pitcher, allowing just one hit in three innings.
Sparky Lyle, who has become a legendary manager in New Jersey professional baseball, pitched two innings and was tagged
for two runs.
Five years later, in 1982, one of the most interesting parts of the all star experience was the plane trip to Montreal.
Leaving from Philadelphia after covering a Phillies-Dodgers game, we sat across the aisle from Tom LaSorda and Fernando
Valenzuela. The National League won the game at Stade Olympique, 4-1, and Cincinnati's Dave Concepcion, who hit a
two-run home run, was most valuable player.
In 1999, the highlight was watching the all stars gather around Ted Williams, who was driven to the mound in a golf cart
to throw out the first ball. He had suffered two strokes and a broken hip but still made it to the game. The players
hung around him so long, talking and posing for photos, that the start of the game was delayed.
When it started, another Red Sox star dominated. Pedro Martinez struck out Barry Larkin, Larry Walker and Sammy Sosa in
the first inning. Then he fanned Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell in the second. Five strikeouts in two innings, earning
him the MVP award as the American League won, 4-1. The Phillies' Curt Schilling was the losing pitcher.
Our last all star game, so far, was in 2000 at Turner Field in Atlanta. Derek Jeter was three-for-three and named the
game's MVP. Later that year, Jeter would be named World Series MVP, the only time one player has won both awards in the
same season.
Those are my personal experiences with the all star game. This year we all watched the Yankee Stadium farewell, filled
with returning Hall of Famers, on TV. The game went 15 innings and was decided with a sacrifice fly. Phillies fans were
surely thrilled to watch J.D. Drew accept the award as most valuable player.
But the sad thing is that, had the game gone another inning or so, Drew and David Wright of the Mets might have become
pitchers. In the all star game! That kind of thing happens in the late innings of a 19-2 game in late August between two
non-contenders. It does not happen in the all star game.
From a fan who loves baseball's all star game, here are a few suggestions that should make sure that third basemen and
right fielders don't end up pitching in extra inning games. Or that games are declared ties.
Add two more pitchers to each all star roster and instruct each manager to secretly designate two of his pitchers as
extra inning pitchers. In addition, add a third pitcher to each roster - a middle reliever or setup man. Those roles
have become so important in today's baseball that the best in each league should be named all stars.
Also, eliminate pitchers hitting, no matter where the game is played. It will be in St. Louis next year so the
designated hitter would not normally be used. But with the greatest hitters in the game in one ballpark, who wants to
see pitchers bat.
Finally, give some thought to permitting starting players to re-enter the game after the ninth inning. That could put
the game's best players in position to win the game in the late innings.
Just a few ideas that can insure that baseball fans in the future have the opportunity to develop special all star
memories like the rest of us.
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Tom Williams' columns